


On order 66, Inhibitor chips, and what the hell happened to Cody?

by VesperSpeaksInTongues



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Background Relationships, Clone Wars, Defected Clone Trooper, Headcanon, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:29:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25346245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VesperSpeaksInTongues/pseuds/VesperSpeaksInTongues
Summary: Not a fanfic!But this is my thoughts on the actual physiological action of the clone's inhibitor chips, my lay persons explanation of how they work, with weak and laughable supporting literature, and my own anecdotal evidence. Not meant to be taken as serious medical analysis, only used as a resource for my own fics, and to be used by other authors struggling to explain the lives of so many of the boys during those lost years in the empire.I am a star wars fan. I haven't read all the comics or the books, but all of Karin Traviss is in my shopping cart online. I happily live in the fanfiction community and make reference to ships and commonly accepted non-cannon ideas.Please use this for inspiration for your writings if you want. Maybe give me a nod? Especially since so much of my explanation is based on personal experience. I also welcome comments, criticisms and concerns but ONLY if they are respectful and are meant to start a creative and sensible conversation/debate.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	On order 66, Inhibitor chips, and what the hell happened to Cody?

Cody and the order 66

Cody is fighting alongside obi wan and the 212th when we see order 66 come in. He orders his men to open fire on the Jedi General, and we see obi wan plunge in to a ravine, presumed dead by the clones.   
We are all trying to understand how does the inhibitor chip work? Literally, how do we explain brain washing?

What we do know is that the chips were implanted to exercise control over the clone's "violent tendencies". Its processes are activated by a verbal order from Darth Sidious, and the clones react almost like the Manchurian Candidate, and carry out the order to eliminate the jedi. 

We know that apparently the clones, especially the command clones, the GAR and the Jedi were aware of order 66 to some extent. It existed in the books as a protocol to enact when a Jedi(s) goes "bad". They are to be subdued or eliminated with prejudice and the clones will revert to being subordinates of Palpatine. Everyone thinks this is reasonable, a sensible back up plan.

But… why do we have clones like Cody who have a good working relationship with their Jedi not think to question the order? Why do clones like Rex who are passionately loyal to their Jedi (consider his attack on Ahsoka) experience a physical reaction upon hearing the order (shaking, panic) and feel the need to physically fight against it? How does it overcome his need to protect Ahsoka and compel him to try to kill her?

I'm throwing my 2 cents out here. This is not meant to be a medical lecture. There are inconsistencies to my line of logic if viewed through the lense of actual modern medical science. But, happy day! We are talking about science fiction! So, my ideas can be applied in a generalized manner and make relatively good sense. I'm not a medical doctor, a psychologist, a genetic engineer, or a chemist, but I'll take my experiences for the past 20 odd years my life working in medicine & pharmacy, as well as my own battle with mental health, to explain how I comprehend the clone's physiological reaction to the order. 

First, a rudimentary explanation of the anatomy and physiology of our brains. We can assume the clones fall pretty solidly into the category of human. Our natural activities take place as chemical "messengers" move across the minute spaces in between neurons and transmit impulses, which are dispursed throughout our body; stimulating us to breath, sweat, talk, etc, both conscious action and unconscious action. Some neurotransmitters are serotonin, oxytocin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. There are many more. We don't 100% understand the actions by all of these neurotransmitters, but we do understand how to manipulate them.

Ok, so to put things in perspective… I take a medication (zoloft/ sertraline) to correct the chemical imbalance in my brain, which causes severe emotional depression. The issue is caused by having insufficient amounts of serotonin in my brain to properly carry messages/impulses. Here is a readers digest type explanation from Mayo Clinic:  
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/ssris/art-20044825

Another neurotransmitter that I think may be involved is Dopamine. I pulled this simple explanation from web MD:

"Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure. It's a big part of our unique human ability to think and plan. It helps us strive, focus, and find things interesting.  
Your body spreads it along four major pathways in the brain. Like most other systems in the body, you don’t notice it (or maybe even know about it) until there’s a problem."

How does this tie in with the chips? The inhibitor chip is a piece of bio-ware that had been implanted by the kaminoans during the gestation of each clone. The chips seemed to be activated by a verbal order from Palps, or, in cases like Tup, the chip is faulty and begins to degrade, forcing the programmed reaction to proceed.

I believe the chips influenced the neurotransmitters in the clone trooper's brains. My theory is this, the activated chip reduced the neurotransmitters that are tied in to emotion so drastically the clone troopers basically emotionally flatline. They turn into a literal piece of meat, no emotion, only the capacity to understand unemotional logic.   
Anyone who has experienced severe mental illness and has been heavily medicated (or stuck by a friend/family member may recognize this). The sick person can be medicated to the point that they are not in emotional pain any more, but you become extremely numb/ zombie-like. Your brain becomes like your foot that has fallen asleep. You know it's there and understand what it does, but you don't "feel" anything. 

Usually, intense medication results in my numbness within 24 - 48 hours as the medication takes effect. I can imagine what it would feel like to have it happen instantly. Over the course of seconds to a few minutes. I'm sure the troopers could sense the change happening in their minds and bodies, almost like watching food dye spread out in a bowl of water, or feeling your gums lose feeling after you've applied a topical numbing agent like ora-gel. The end result is they are left emotionally numb, all sense of love, affection, pride, happiness, fear, regret… all dissappear and you can only function off of logic, solid real data that you can see, touch, and consume. 

The emperor says the Jedi are traitors and must be executed or arrested. "I" am a trooper of the GAR and my protocols say I must report to Palpatine in this instance (all the years of rigid military training to follow orders no matter what), therefore I must execute or arrest Jedi.

A great example of this can be seen in the remake of robocop in 2014. Again this is NOT a medical dialogue, this is science fiction lol but for our purposes it makes sense. Google the police HQ address/arrest scene. If you can get one that shows the few minutes before he reports to the stage, Murphy is being downloaded with tons of police data files and he begins to feel overwhelmed and freak out. His handlers drop his levels of neurotransmitters, specifically mentioning dopamine, until he "numbs" to everything. He walks past his wife and young son moments later without even acknowledging them, even scanning them both for criminal records. Once on the stage he does not perceive the excitement or anxiety of being presented to the public, nor is in awe of the important public officials trying to shake his hand. He is only concerned with his orders, to search every face in the crowd for criminals and arrest them, which he does. 

Now, take our clone troopers who did the EXACT same thing. In seconds the emotional attachments that tied them to their jedi generals were gone. The person before them was now just a criminal, as stated by your Supreme commander, nothing more nothing less. Your job is to shoot them. Maybe you recognize the face, but it means nothing to you. You feel nothing when viewing them, they could be a total stranger. 

Bly shoots at Aayla. 

Cody orders his men to fire upon Obi Wan.

Gree and his men approach Yoda from Behind.

Rex, receiving the command, remembering the wording of the order, feels this numbness overtaking him and begins to act. We can see him visibly shake from the sensation. He knows that he will shoot and kill Ahsoka and it makes perfect sense to him to do it, but in the moments where he still feels his love for his friend, and fears for her safety, he begs her to "Find Fives" before he loses all trace of these feelings and is subdued by emotionless logic and protocol. We see Ahsoka escape and find the records of Fives discovering the inhibitor chip. 

Ahsoka is close with her men, having formed strong personal bonds, and shares a deep love with Rex (fans cannot agree if it is romantic love or the love of dear friends) knows that the man absolutely would not hunt and kill her unless something was very wrong. She makes the connection and seeks to free him from the influence of the bio-ware.  
Once removing the chip, his emotional awareness returns as quickly as it left, and he chooses to rescue her by shooting his beloved brothers, who are still pursuing her.

Some might ask, how can something as simple as neurotransmitters make you not love someone you love with your heart and soul?   
It happens. Its the truth. And it will haunt you to your dying day once you've experienced it. Let's take a few non-cannon ships: Bly & Aayla and Rex and Ahsoka.

I don't know much about Bly & Aayla, just some good fanfics about them having a romance. I ship the hell out of Rex and Ahsoka, and Filoni was good enough to give us some meat and potatoes to fill out their friendship enough that we can see some kind of love between them on screen. You decide. 

How do these men take aim at their girls? In the most horrible of chemical induced lows, emotions like love fade to grey. You can lie in bed next to your spouse and feel nothing. They look like your sweetheart but you don't feel the love and tenderness. Like they are an imposter with your mate's face. When you're well again you feel pretty damn guilty about it. My hubs has struggled in recent years. We sat in bed one night and I (well medicated and chill and content, shared with him this scenario. He broke down crying, admitting he felt that way and ashamed that he did so. I calmed him with the news that I had been there and felt the same before.   
(He's doing better now, poor babe) now take this scenario and have her none the wiser and him being a soldier trained since birth to trust his superiors and follow orders. We are in a space age war and he's been told, she is a traitor, she has caused grievous damage to all that we hold dear. Eliminate her. He looks at her and sees her face but does not feel the connection he identifies with her, his lover.  
Fucking heartbreaking. So we sobbed through the last episode of TCW.

Sooo… thats my reasoning/analysis.

So, the guys with chips like Cody, are they just fucked? Relegated to walking meat puppet? Not exactly.

We are told that clones are intelligent and learn extremely quickly. IRL we see people with terrible injuries re-learn things they have lost. Healthy individuals learn new things all the time. Learning builds new pathways through the brain, and the body is in a constant state of change as it manages its various systems and tends to growth and healing.

By my own experiences, I've controlled my neurotransmitter issues with medicine. Unfortunately, for me and many others, your medication might stop working after a few years of therapy. IDK why, and haven't ever gotten a proper explanation. Let me guess and say that as time passes and my body changes the neural pathways and chemical needs in my brain change and are not being affected by the medication in the way they used to be. Like the dude in Jurasdic park says, "life finds a way". 

So let's just throw it out there, for a few years the clones are totally in thrall to the emperor. Vader favors the clone troops and uses them in all of his battles. Palps sends them to subdue any planet and people that does not give in to him, defunct republic or separatist. They fight and kill and burn and destroy at the behest of their master. They are numb. They don't give a shit if they live or die themselves. They hunt Jedi. They turn padwans and younglings over to Palpatine (later to be inquisitors). Clone commandos are sent to destroy the facilities at Kamino.   
Cody, now Imperial Marshall Commander, is pretty damn good at what he does. He doesn't feel anything either. 

But then, after a few years… the pathways are changing… and their minds begin to circumvent the chips. They begin to feel aglife Just?

Many are like, whatever. The republic was never good to them. Treated them like product. Is the empire any different? They never experienced anything different.. What would compel them to change their lot in life? Just keep on keeping on.

Others may have really been through hell. Maybe they had a dog for a General, who looked down on them as lesser. Maybe they were flung in to so many situations by an inadequate Jedi general and lost so many brothers and suffered themselves. Maybe they had been abused or mistreated by the general population. Maybe all of that was enough to make them appreciate Palp's iron fist, and Vader's merciless attitude towards the galaxy. Fuck em all.

But some, maybe like our beloved Cody, experienced friendship. Mutual respect. Hope. Brotherhood beyond the Vode. He had been encouraged by Obi Wan to be a free thinker and express his will. It made him a more capable Commander and he had at times questioned the ways of the world. Maybe when Cody comes up for air, he begins to see what is going on around him. He sees the despair sown by the emperor. The abuse of power. The mistreatment of so many people (whom he helped turn in to slaves for the empire). Cody becomes distraught and carries great guilt for his part. Maybe he encounters some wolf pack boys and hears about a few who couldn't cope with what they had done to "Father", and ate their own blasters. He knows who Vader is and is in despair at how far the respected hero had fallen. There are others like Cody. They need to do something, but how to escape the empire? Where will they go in a galaxy that has learned to hate them? How will they live with themselves?

My answer… perhaps it takes the innocence of a new generation to pull an old sad miserable man out of his self loathing and give him something new to live for..

So… what do you think of my lllloooonnnggg crazy brain dropping??

Vesper


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